Free School Meals

If you receive certain benefits your child may be entitled to a free school meal at lunchtime.

Children who are entitled to free school meals may also receive:

• Help with the costs towards residential trips.
• Help with travel costs to school.
• Help with school uniform costs.

If your child is entitled to free school meals their school can receive extra financial help called the pupil premium.  This is currently worth £1,320 per child for pupils in Reception Year through to Year 6.

All children in the Reception Year, Year 1 and Year 2 receive a free school meal.  However it is still important for you to complete an application in order for your child's school to be eligible to receive the additional benefits above.

Your child will also be able to get free school meals if you receive any of the following benefits:

• Income Support
• Income-based Jobseekers Allowance
• Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
• Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
• The guaranteed element of State Pension Credit
• Child Tax Credit, as long as you do not get a Working Tax Credit and do not have an annual income (as assessed by HM Revenues and Customs) that exceeds £16,190.
• Working Tax Credit run-on paid for four weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit.
• Universal Credit.

To check if you are eligible please call 01473 260989

If your child is eligible, you can apply online at www.suffolk.gov.uk/freeschoolmeals (or click on the link below). If your child is about to start school full-time and you already have an older child receiving a free school meal, you will need to fill in a new application form for this child.

What is the Service Pupil Premium?

The Department for Education (DfE) introduced the Service pupil premium (SPP) in April 2011 in recognition of the specific challenges children from Service families face and as part of the commitment to delivering the armed forces covenant.

State schools, academies and free schools in England, which have children of Service families in school years reception to year 11, can receive the SPP funding. It is designed to assist the school in providing the additional support that these children may need and is currently worth £335 per Service child who meets the eligibility criteria.

Eligibility criteria

Pupils attract SPP if they meet one of the following criteria:

• one of their parents is serving in the regular armed forces (including pupils with a parent who is on full commitment as part of the full-time reserve service)
• they have been registered as a ‘Service child’ on a school census in the past six years, see note on the DfE’s ever 6 Service child measure
• one of their parents died whilst serving in the armed forces and the pupil receives a pension under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme or the War Pensions Scheme
• one of their parents is in the armed forces of another nation and is stationed in England

Children have to be flagged as Service children ahead of the autumn school census deadline. Service parents need to make the school aware of their status by talking to the head teacher or school admin staff.

DfE’s ever 6 service child measure

The premium was extended , such that any pupil in reception to year 11, who has been flagged as a Service child in the last six years, will continue to receive the premium (Ever 6 service child). Please see the ESFA’s pupil premium grant guidance for more information.

Ex Service personnel should tell the school if they left the armed forces within the last six years. Under the DfE’s ever measure, schools will continue to receive SPP for up to six years for children whose parent(s) left the armed forces, provided the children were recorded as Service children in a school census (prior to their parent(s) leaving the forces). The ever measure also applies when Service parents divorce or separate or when a Service parent dies in service.

The purpose of the Service pupil premium

Eligible schools receive the SPP so that they can offer mainly pastoral support during challenging times and to help mitigate the negative impact on Service children of family mobility or parental deployment.

Mobility is when a Service family is posted from one location to another, including overseas and within the UK.

Deployment is when a Service person is serving away from home for a period of time. This could be a 6 to 9-month tour of duty, a training course or an exercise which could last for a few weeks.

How Service pupil premium differs from the pupil premium

The SPP is there for schools to provide mainly pastoral support for Service children, whereas the pupil premium (PP) was introduced to raise attainment and accelerate progress within disadvantaged groups.

Schools should not combine SPP with the main PP funding and the spending of each premium should be accounted for separately.

Please read the information below which gives details of our Pupil Premium Grant and how we allocate the funding.